Fundamentally: Shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction [paperback] Yo

A wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion and the decisions we make in pursuit of belonging.\n'By normal, you mean like you? A slag with a saviour complex?'\n\nNadia is an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, Rosy. She decides to make a getaway, accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues.\n\nSara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen.\n\nNadia is struck by how similar they are: both feisty and opinionated, from a Muslim background, with a shared love of Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines. A powerful friendship forms between the two women, until a secret confession from Sara threatens everything Nadia has been working for.